Microwave assisted synthesis and characterization of end functionalized poly(propylene oxide) as model compounds

End functionalized poly(propylene oxide)s with n-alkyl endgroups are synthesized by anionic ring opening polymerization of propylene oxide (PO) in bulk employing controlled microwave heating in sealed vessels. Different alcohols ranging from n-butanol to n-octadecanol are used as initiator and 2-10 propylene oxide units are added on average. A continuous decrease of internal pressure during the sealed vessel experiment reflects the consumption of PO monomer and the completion of the reaction is confirmed by a drop of the internal pressure to zero. The products are characterized by size exclusion chromatography (SEC), liquid chromatography at critical conditions (LCCC) and liquid adsorption chromatography (LAC). SEC with coupled density and refractive index (RI) detection provides information on the chemical composition along the molar mass distribution. LCCC allows a separation of the individual polymer homologous series according to their end groups. In LAC, the alkyl terminated chains elute later than the non-functional chains and can be separated to the baseline according to the number of repeat units.